Happy Belated Christmas and New Years!

As the title says I'm once again late in relaying information.

I did in fact celebrate a Christmas here in Germany. While many American families were preparing pies, putting out stockings, and attending a Christmas Eve church service I was enjoying a Christmas dinner with my host family. Christmas is northern Germany is celebrated on the 24th instead of the 25th. I have found that it is the same way in many other countries as well. The next two days are called the first and second Christmas days.

CHRISTMAS DAY (24th of Dec.)

Morning:

Breakfast
Cleaning
Decorating the tree with real apples and actual candles

Afternoon:

Visiting Grandma for tea and cake
(She knit me two scarves, a hat, and gloves!)

Evening:

Church with my family
Dinner with my parents and sisters
Exchanging gifts: We rolled a dice to see who would get to pick the next gift to be opened

12:00AM:

The neighbors came over and we toasted my dad's birthday together
We sat around for two more hours until we finally went off to bed

The next two Christmas Days were spent visiting friends, eating, and then celebrating my Dad's birthday at the house with all of his gentlemen friends.



NEW YEARS!!!

On the 30th I went to a friends cabin to play a trivia game with her and her friends. On the 31th I drove with my cousin and a couple friends to Münster (a city in western Germany) where my older sister, Sophie, was going to school. She had an apartment party there. We played board games, cards, and at midnight we went out on the sidewalk to light fireworks, sparklers, etc.

Germans have a really fun tradition of watching the skit ''Dinner For One'' EVERY SINGLE NEW YEARS. It's a British 20 minute skit in English, and it's worth taking a peek at. Everyone at the party was quoting it, laughing until they were crying, and enjoying the tradition. It is something I am bringing back to the US with me.



All and all I had a very lovey holiday. The two weeks off from school were also very nice. I spent a lot of time at Christmas markets in the City and in near by villages with my family and friends. Although it wasn't a White Christmas it felt enough like Christmas for me not to miss home too much. I was surrounded by family, friends, and laughter. That is part of what the Christmas season is all about.


I apologize for not keeping up on my blogging. I will try to make that my New Year's Resolution: Be a better blogger. :D